In response to RFA-DK-11-009, our overall goal is to create a Pediatric Center of Excellence in Nephrology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC PGEN), to support basic, translational, and clinical research on critical pediatric kidney diseases that have major unmet needs. The overarching theme is to conduct innovative and high-impact bench-to-bedside studies on three critical but underserved pediatric kidney diseases. Our three areas of focus include acute kidney injury, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and lupus nephritis, already developed as areas of multidisciplinary expertise at our institution. The urgent need will be addressed by three individual research projects as well as by the three Biomedical Cores, all proposed by outstanding funded investigators with a track record of successful multidisciplinary collaborative efforts in the focu areas. The two novel exploratory pilot studies proposed by exceptional and promising young investigators will form the basis for their future investigator-initiated applications to study acue kidney injury. The specific aims include: (1) to attract outstanding scientific expertise into the study of critical but underserved pediatric kidney diseases; (2) to foster multidisciplinary approaches to the study of critical but underserved pediatric kidney diseases within our focus areas at the basic, translational, and clinical levels; (3) To provide high-resource Gene Expression, Proteomics, and Biomarker Cores to support the study of pediatric kidney diseases locally, regionally, and nationally; and (4) to support novel exploratory pilot studies that will form the basis for future investigator-initiated applications t study critical but underserved pediatric kidney diseases. Evidence for strong support from institutional leadership is provided. Added strengths include the CCHMC Pediatric Nephrology Division, with a proven track record of excellence and collaboration in the study of the three focus areas. Active support and collaboration from the institutional CTSA and from a large number of divisions that are involved in multidisciplinary collaborative efforts in the three focus areas of study provide the extended resources for success. The proposal also comes with active support and collaboration from our NIH funded T32 Fellowship Training Program.